Viswanathan Anand's incredible winless streak continues unabated as the World Champion played out yet another draw with Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan to slip to the joint fifth spot in the Bilbao Grand Slam Final in Bilbao, Spain.
Both Anand and Sethuraman inched themselves up to five points out of a possible seven and shared the joint eighth spot after a rather dull day that witnessed several draws on the top tables.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
With Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus Carlsen eyeing his numero uno tag, World champion Viswanathan Anand, his pre-tournament favourite tag notwithstanding, just cannot afford to lower his guard in the Grand Slam Chess Final Masters starting in Bilbao, Spain, on Monday.
Contrary to the common assumption that Muslims view globalisation as a threat to their society, a new poll has revealed that majority of people adhering to the Islamic faith view the phenomenon positively.Conducted in seven nations with predominantly Muslim populations in different regions of the world, the poll found 63 per cent of the people favouring globalisation for their countries, while only 25 per cent viewing it as bad.
IMAGES from the Euro 2020 qualifiers played on Thursday
Rifle shooter Chain Singh became the seventh Indian marksman to clinch an Olympic quota place after finishing eighth in the 50m Rifle 3 Position event of the ISSF World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan, on Friday.
World champion Viswanathan Anand crushed Vladimir Kramnik in the blindfold section and romped home with a 1.5-0.5 victory in the crucial eighth round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament, in Nice, France on Monday.
Harry Kane's injury-time goal gave England a 2-2 draw after a crazy finish to their World Cup qualifier against Scotland on Saturday with Leigh Griffiths having struck twice for the home side in the final three minutes.
Arsenal enjoyed a 3-0 win in Azerbaijan against Qarabag in the Europa League on Thursday and AC Milan beat Greece's Olympiakos Piraeus 3-1 but Sevilla suffered a shock defeat by Russians Krasnodar.
Indian boxers will return empty-handed from the World Championships for the first time in four years after none of their five quarter-finalists made it to the semi-finals in the biennial mega-event, in Almaty, Kazkakhastan, on Wednesday. After the defeats of fourth seed Shiva Thapa (56kg) and sixth seed Manoj Kumar in the afternoon, Vikash Malik (60kg) and Sumit Sangwan (81kg) also lost their quarter-final bouts in the evening session.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand was stunned by Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the fourth round of the Bilbao Grand Slam final chess tournament in Bilbao.
The Indian juggernaut seemed unstoppable as four boxers, including Asian champion Amit Panghal (52kg), advanced to the quarter-finals with impressive victories.
World champion Viswanathan Anand thumped Shakhriayar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan to register his second straight rapid game victory in the second round of the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament in Nice. With nine rounds still to go, Anand is now sitting pretty at the top in rapid along with Levon Aronian of Armenia on two points each after two wins with black pieces.
Thirty-two countries, ranging from Finland and Sweden to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Macedonia and Kazakhstan, have declared interest in hosting matches at Euro 2020 which will be staged across the continent.
Commonwealth Games silver-medallist L Devendro Singh (49kg) and Asian Games bronze-medallist Vikas Krishan (75kg) will spearhead a nine-strong Indian team at the AIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament, starting June 16, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Reigning world rapid champion Viswanathan Anand drew his sixth straight game of the tournament to stay undefeated and have a mid-table placing at number four with three points.
A final round draw was enough for Goa's Ivana Furtado to bag the girls under-eight category gold, while fellow Indians Shalmali Gagare and Prince Bajaj bagged a bronze each in the World Youth Chess Championships in Antalya, Turkey.
International Master D Harika is the second Indian girl to emerge Junior World champion. Koneru Humpy won the crown in 2001.
He became the first Indian pugilist to qualify for next year's Beijing Olympics after he defeated European silver medallist Shahin Imranov to advance to the quarter-finals of the World Boxing Championships in Chicago.
Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Vladislav Artemiev of Russia in the eighth and penultimate round, ending the Indian challenge in the Isle of Man International Chess tournament on Sunday.
Indian boxer Gaurav Bidhuri (52kg) is fast making a name for himself at the International Boxing Association's semi-professional World Series of Boxing, churning out three consecutive wins for his franchise Italia Thunder in the ongoing season.
Taking his tally up to two points out of a possible four, Anand now has his task cut out for the remaining five games in this strongest tournament of the year. The world rapid champion needs a couple of victories to stake a claim in the tournament.
World chess champion Viswanathan Anand asserted his supremacy at the Morelia-Linares tournament for the second time on the trot after settling for a facile draw with Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the 14th and final round in Linares. Anand ended this category-21 tournament with 8.5 points and finished a half point clear of nearest rival Magnus Carlsen of Norway who played a draw with Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan in his last game.
High-flying with his superman-cap, overnight joint leader Grandmaster Gupta ran out of steam and surrendered to Nakamura on a day when B Adhiban also did well to hold Levon Aronian of Armenia to a creditable draw.
It is the diamond in Africa and Russia that is dazzling India these days. India is planning joint ventures with diamond mining companies across Russia, Africa and the CIS nations.
After conceding a draw with white against Levon Aronian of Armenia, Anand got the favour returned although he had to work relatively harder to maintain parity against Nakamura, often termed his nemesis.
World champion Viswanathan Anand split points with Russian Vladimir Kramnik in the 13th and final round to share the third spot in Group A at the end of the Corus International Chess tournament on Monday.
Maverick striker Mario Balotelli has been called up by Italy for the first time since the World Cup in June after being included on Sunday in the squad for next weekend's Euro 2016 qualifier at home to Croatia.
Unable to break through the solid defenses of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, World Champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by the Azerbaijani in the second round of the Group 'A' of Corus International Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee.
Rude defeats for World champion Viswanthan Anand and fellow Grandmaster Koneru Humpy summed up a pathetic day for the Indians in the first round of Corus Chess tournament.
Grandmaster P Harikrishna was held to a draw by GM Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan in the fifth round of the 50th edition of Reggio Emilia International Chess tournament in Italy.
Grandmaster P Harikrishna got the better of David Navara's defence and tamed the Czech to leapfrog to the lead after the fourth round of the 50th Reggio Emilia Chess tournament.
International Master Martin Breutigam, a longtime contributor to German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, accused Topalov of soliciting help from his manager Silvio Danailov through gestures and signals during some of the games.
World champion Viswanathan Anand thumped Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine in the blindfold and won his sixth round game 1.5-0.5 in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess tournament in Nice. With five rounds still to go, Levon Aronian of Armenia is at the top of the combined points table on 7.5 while Anand is now close behind with seven points in his kitty.
The Indian Grandmaster beat Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the seventh round, in the Mtel Masters chess tournament.
The Indian men and women's teams made winning starts to their campaign in the 43rd Chess Olympiad, in Batumi, Georgia, on Tuesday.
Swiss-based Sauber have parted company with principal Monisha Kaltenborn, the first woman to run a Formula One outfit, the team's owners said.
Three rookies are set to make their race debuts and Azarbaijan will make it's Formula One debut even as Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg pose to challenge odds on favourite Lewis Hamilton.
